Aircraft Will Be Used To Escort UAVs Out Of Restricted Areas

ANN April 1 “April Fools” Special Edition

The Academy of Model Aeronautics (AMA) has been awarded a contract valued at $10 million to train various government personnel in the operation of remote-controlled F-16s.

The Secret Service approached the AMA about the training after a UAV crashed on the White House Lawn in January. Secret Service Director Joseph Clancy contacted AMA Executive Director Dave Mathewson to say the service needed to be able to intercept and escort unauthorized UAVs away from the White House, or to be able to bring them down if necessary. The Secret Service has also been authorized to acquire scale model F-16s from Boeing, complete with small, operative but non-explosive paint missiles should a UAV operator decline to fly his or her aircraft out of a restricted area. “Even if we don’t force them down, we can mark ‘em and find the operators later,” Clancy said.

The contract was quickly expanded to include the National Parks Service, which has largely banned the use of UAVs in the parks system. The Department of the Interior sent out a department-wide email looking for anyone with any kind of pilot experience to train for the program.

Mathewson said he was reluctant to take the contract at first, but then decided that someone was going to provide the training, and the organization could certainly use the money. “Even worse,” he said, “they’d go out there and try to fly them without any familiarization or instruction, and wind up crashing an RC jet into a building somewhere. If they’re going to do this, and you know they are, then they should be encouraged to do it safely.”

The training will begin with normal, foam-construction electric-powered RC Airplanes while Boeing builds the models. First deliveries are expected late next year, and the Secret Service and Department of the Interior say that the first squadrons of scale F-16s should be ready about the time the FAA finishes its regulatory process.

FMI: www.modelaricraft.org